POP MUSIC REVIEW : Cooking ‘Colors’ Seasons Traditional Yule : The format was simple--a mix of solos and duets, carols and hits--but the results were impressive.

Christmas tunes with a funk beat? Yes indeed. The elegant Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts was cooking with new Yule sounds Wednesday night when Peabo Bryson, Roberta Flack, Patti Austin and Jeffrey Osborne celebrated the holiday with a rhythmic mix of seasonal melodies and greatest hits.

The format of the program, called “The Colors of Christmas” (and scheduled to repeat Thursday), was simplicity itself. Each performer sang a number or two, then launched into a duet with the next performer. The results were impressive: Flack and Bryson in a soulful rendering of “I’ll Be Home for Christmas,” Bryson and Austin capturing much of the magic of “A Whole New World,” the Oscar-winning song from the Disney film “Aladdin,” Austin and Osborne with a soaring, beautifully harmonized “How Do You Keep the Music Playing.”

Much of the individual work was equally splendid. Flack’s voice is still one of the unique instruments in contemporary music, possibly the most affecting since Sarah Vaughan’s salad days. Flack sang her biggest hit, “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face,” with a passion that clearly defined her continuing ownership of the song, and she followed it with the single most poignant moment of the concert, a spirit-lifting reading of “What Child Is This?”

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It was Austin, however, who very nearly stole the show. Quick with a quip, ever eager to entertain, she joked, danced, shouted and sang--whatever it took to make her point. Her voice is strikingly malleable, and she moved easily from the nostalgic “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” to more contemporary numbers, tossing in impressions of Harry Belafonte and some authentic-sounding Swedish yodeling. A delightfully witty entertainer, she brought sorely needed energy and sheer kick-out-the-jams enthusiasm to the evening.

Bryson had the easygoing, self-confident style of a performer in full control of his skills. His version of “The Christmas Song” was completely his own, untouched by any need to simulate previous renditions. Osborne seemed less assured. Often, he stalked the stage with an almost feral intensity, insisting that the audience interact with him, and too often the intensity worked against him. His interpretation of “The First Noel,” for example, started with preacher-like fervor, bubbling with funk rhythms and gospel melismas, but drifted off into histrionic mannerism.

There were other problems. Flack’s voice was reproduced over the audio system with a treble edge that failed to fully display the rich timbre of her natural sound. Worse, the orchestra was more a hazard than a support. Dull, block-chorded, unchallenging arrangements were a good part of the difficulty; the other parts were flawed intonation from the string section, which sounded incapable of playing even an octave passage in tune, and a rhythm section that was only marginally better than a synthesized drum machine.

Fortunately, the singers--troupers all--more than made up for the technical difficulties and the flabby orchestral support. “The Colors of Christmas” may have added new rhythms to familiar melodies, but it never lost its connection with traditional seasonal values.

The Los Angeles Children’s choir joined the featured performers for several Christmas tunes, including a joyous interpretation of “The Little Drummer Boy.”